Old Dartmouth historical sketches - New Bedford Whaling Museum

Barstow, his old William Rotch yard and what is now theLewis Bolles property, where Captain Wilson built the housenow lived in by Mr. Bolles.As this would indicate, a younger crop of shipbuilders wasappearing. Two of these were the Cannon brothers, EbeneezerJr. and Eliakim; and it was the descendants of these two, alongwith those of Gideon Barstow, who made Mattapoisett famousfor shipbuilding. For three generations Cannons and Barstowsran most of the shipyards and furnished the finest ship carpenters.This hereditary craftsmanship is most interesting, and remindsone of the old guilds in Europe, where the secrets of each craftwere handed down for generations from father to son.After the Revolution a few names of vessels built in Mattapoisettbegin to appear. The first, in 1778, was the sloopEliza, built in Aucoot by Abncr Pease, probably to carry saltfrom the Hiller saltworks in that vicinity. Abner Pease continuedto own a small shipyard there, building sloops and schooners,until 1 804, when he moved to North Fairhaven where hebuilt vessels for many years.Likewise, we begin to get some record of vessels builton the Mattapoisett River. According to tradition, vessels werebuiltthere during the Revolution which were used to dodge theBritish warships in Long Island Sound. There were several smallshipyards along the River; but the last and best known was onthe East bank only a few rods below the present Flerring Weir,and was run by George Washington Gifford, the grandfather ofHenry Rogers. Only a few sloops and schooners of his buildingare known, except the Brig Brutus, of 200 tons, built in1801. Tradition has it that when she was launched, she slidacross the river with such rapidity that she stuck firmly in themud on the opposite side, and it took six weeks to get her outand down into deep water. This trouble was prophetic, fortwo years later she was lost at sea. Her master, Capt. AsephPrice, who had been master of the ship Williciiu mid Mary ofNew Bedford, was lost with her.After the Revolution, shipbuilding in the village yards evidentlystarted in where it had left off, and began to flourish. In1786 Minister Le Baron wrote: "Navigation is so much the objectof our attention as to be a great disadvantage to our husbandry... we have about 4 vessels employed in the whalingfishery, about the principal source of our specie. Shipbuildingand iron are two branches of manufactory not unprofitable."